Formatting USB memory. (Question)

[Refreshment]

Hi there.

Have this USB memory that most contain virus programs. Anyway, don't want to put it in the PC.

If i managed to format it in other PC, will that take away the viruses? Let's say the PC where the memory gets formatted is infected. Would i get a virus if after the format i use the stick on my PC?

Thanks for your time.

 

[entity279]

Been trying to deal with the situation a few times myself.

I suppose as long as autoplay is disabled and you format the disk there will be no problem at all.

 

[Refreshment]

Been trying to deal with the situation a few times myself.

I suppose as long as autoplay is disabled and you format the disk there will be no problem at all.

But... if i manage to format it in other PC, even if that PC had viruses, shouldn't be the USB be clean?

About the auto run... That advice has been given to me but i want to be extra sure. I was thinking also booting into linux and format there, then enter Windows as always, since i need to copy a BIOS flashing program.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Depends on the virus. Some virus/trojan/worms will automatically infect a USB device as soon as it is plugged in.

Regards,
SB

 

[Davros]

remember to keep the shift key pressed while you insert the usb stick to stop it auto-running
(keep it pressed down for a good 10-15 secs)

 

[digitalwanderer]

Safer option, totally disable autorun.

 

[Davros]

true or boot into a live cd and format from there

 

[Blazkowicz]

yes, disable autorun on all drives with TweakUI (the easiest way to do it) and you should be fine. then you can delete the autorun.inf, after looking at it and deleting the program or script it calls. (for that you can do attrib -s -h -r pieceofscript.vbs from the command line then delete)


(well.. if you cared about the content )

for BIOS flashing you can look into HP USB Storage Tool : you can format your drive AND put the basic MSDOS files + boot sector on it, then copy the BIOS file and flash program, boot it and flash from DOS (dunno if it's what you intended).
I love it, you can flash any BIOS with that, and put some old junk like arkanoid.

 

[Refreshment]

true or boot into a live cd and format from there

You mean the sample version (streaming from CD) of the Ubuntu installation disk?

yes, disable autorun on all drives with TweakUI (the easiest way to do it) and you should be fine. then you can delete the autorun.inf, after looking at it and deleting the program or script it calls. (for that you can do attrib -s -h -r pieceofscript.vbs from the command line then delete)

for BIOS flashing you can look into HP USB Storage Tool : you can format your drive AND put the basic MSDOS files + boot sector on it, then copy the BIOS file and flash program, boot it and flash from DOS (dunno if it's what you intended).
I love it, you can flash any BIOS with that, and put some old junk like arkanoid.

Someone suggested disabling autorun by using "gpedit.msc" command. Did that way. Must say that im quiet surprised to see how dangerous the autorun feature is. Very glad that people brought some light into this matter.

Anyway,How do i delete the "autorun.inf"?
You mean using dos? like "dir/ah" and then the command "del autorun.inf".

People keep telling me to use the MSI utility. Haven't looked into it to see how it works, but soon i will (hopefully)

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Disabling autorun still won't prevent a USB drive from becoming infected again when inserted into a machine with a virus/trojan/worm that is designed to infect external media.

So what Davros suggested would be the "safest" way to reformat a USB drive.

Regards,
SB

 

[Blazkowicz]

if you put it an infested PC, it will be infected no matter what, reformarted or not .

the only way might be to format it with the ext2 file system. so only linux systems will see it (maybe mac), or your own Windows with ext2 driver installed.

but.. a friend of mine did a trick : put a dummy autorun.inf ; a directory named autorun.inf, actually. presumably viruses aren't able to create an autorun.inf file . had a try at it : mkdir autorun.inf, then try to write stuff into it (using the copy command, or type with file redirection : that fails).
a smarter virus could check that of course but they don't seem to bother.

so you can embed that cheap protection and hide it if you want (so it won't appear on most other PCs)

 

[Blazkowicz]

Anyway,How do i delete the "autorun.inf"?
You mean using dos? like "dir/ah" and then the command "del autorun.inf".

People keep telling me to use the MSI utility. Haven't looked into it to see how it works, but soon i will (hopefully)

I insist about calling that the windows command line, and do a dir/o/a, but yes it's that.

note that you can look at the virus code when it's a .vbs file, which I don't understand (would have to make quite an effort), but it's funny.

 

[karlotta]

fire up a "Machine" and use a AV in a sandbox, use USB drive. Or
Hook up a old HDD( if needed for post) , use live cd, .